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EDM has never been defined by a single sound.
It’s always consisted of a wide umbrella of subgenres, tied together by electronic production and their shared goal of getting people to move.
Now, more than ever, music producers on Splice are searching like the umbrella matters much less than the styles that live underneath it. Over the past year, electronic dance genres took a bigger slice of all genre searches on Splice, growing their combined share by about 3%. But, that growth isn’t coming from the big-tent festival sound; it’s coming from specific scenes.
The sounds creators on Splice reach for today often hint at where music is headed tomorrow, well before those ideas show up on streaming. It’s not an exact science, since producers borrow and reimagine sounds across genres all the time, but the bigger patterns can be worth paying attention to.
With that in mind, we took a look at how producers searched for and downloaded sounds on Splice from September 2025 through August 2026, compared to the year before, to see which movements look durable enough to carry into 2027. Here’s what stood out.
1. UK garage and bass are converging around speed garage
Speed garage’s share of genre searches on Splice grew by more than 160% year over year, and producers are increasingly searching for it alongside UK garage—searches pairing the two nearly tripled. Bass music is following a similar path, showing up more often next to UK garage, dubstep, and hyperpop.
The 2027 read: Converging around speed garage, UK garage and bass seem like they’ll only keep growing, even if not at the explosive pace of this past year.
2. Melodic and French house are leading house forward
Melodic house has momentum on both sides of the equation. Its share of genre searches rose 63% year over year, downloads grew even faster, and both are still rising in recent months. That demand is spread across many releases rather than one breakout pack.
Meanwhile, French house’s search share also grew by 38%, and the number of producers downloading its sounds rose by more than 80%. Interest climbed gradually across the year instead of spiking once, which is what a real revival tends to look like.
Afro house remains one of the most searched house styles, with search share up more than 50%. But, downloads are starting to level off recently, suggesting the style has matured.
The 2027 read: Melodic house has the breadth to keep rising, and French house textures and references should keep resurfacing. By contrast, Afro house looks like a high plateau as opposed to the next breakout.
3. Hard techno holds steady, while hard dance picks up
Hard techno and hard dance are on different curves. Hard techno’s search share grew 27% year over year, and it’s increasingly searched alongside techno. Its most recent months were roughly flat, which feels like durability post-rise rather than a decline.
On the other hand, hard dance is more volatile. Its search share rose 68% over the year, softened for a stretch, and then jumped in the last few months. Eurodance also saw a real revival, with search share up more than 80%.
The 2027 read: Hard techno should keep gaining gradually. Hard dance might grow faster, but its rebound needs a bit more time before it’s a sure thing.
4. Hyperpop is bleeding into other genres
Hyperpop isn’t the biggest on Splice, but its growth is broad. Search share rose 38% year over year and has only kept climbing in recent months, spread across dozens of new packs.
It’s also showing up in more searches alongside bass music, indie electronic, and future bass. That doesn’t mean producers see these genres as identical, but their workflows are increasingly overlapping.
The 2027 read: Expect hyperpop techniques to keep leaking into bass and indie electronic production—especially synthetic transients, heavily processed vocals, and exaggerated sound design.
5. Drum and bass is splitting into named subgenres
With its search share slipping about 6%, the umbrella drum and bass tag isn’t growing. Underneath it, though, specific substyles are picking up. Jungle’s search share rose 16%, and the share of downloads tagged with jump up and liquid drum and bass grew by more than 50% each.
The 2027 read: Producers will be exploring increasingly sharper specialization in drum and bass, reaching for the musical vocabulary of a specific substyle.
6. Festival-era EDM labels keep fading
Tropical house, future house, future bass, slap house, big room house, and trap EDM all lost search and download share over the past year. Tropical house saw the steepest drop, with its search share down about 35%.
The 2027 read: The production ideas behind these genres aren’t going anywhere, and the takeaway shouldn’t be that these genres are somehow inferior to others. However, the labels are losing currency. Producers may be likely to describe adjacent sounds with newer, more specific terms.
7. Synths are overtaking vocals in what producers search for
When producers browsing electronic genres type what they’re looking for, synth-related terms like leads, pads, arps, and plucks now make up the largest share of those searches, up 14% year over year. Texture and atmosphere, melodic chords and stabs, effects and transitions, drums, and bass all gained ground too.
Vocals moved the other way, with their share of these searches down about 24%. There’s been a small recent rebound, but not enough to call it a reversal.
The 2027 read: Electronic dance production on Splice is likely to stay more centered on synths: leads, pads, arps, plucks, basses, transitions, etc. Vocals are still essential, but a smaller part of the search mix than a year ago.
The bottom line
Heading into 2027, we’re seeing a shift away from one umbrella “EDM” and toward specific scenes: UK-derived club music, melodic and French-infused house, drum and bass subgenres with clear identities, and more. It’s also worth noting producers in electronic genres are also using broad crossover filters like hip hop, trap, pop, and R&B less often. Interest is narrowing toward more specific niches instead, with rage standing out as the strongest riser. At the sound level, the palette is becoming more synth-driven and sound design-led.
Whichever lane you’re working in, explore the latest sounds on Splice and start building toward what’s next.
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October 21, 2026
